The Deadly Tangerine

[thedrifter]

The Deadly Tangerine
By Charlie Daniels
July 27, 2007

When I first thought about writing on this ridiculous subject I intended to be frivolous and tongue in cheek about it but with this man running for President and this woman wanting to be First Lady there's really nothing funny about it.

I know you've all heard about John Edwards referring to the war on terror as a slogan or a bumpersticker, a statement worthy of Howdy Doody maybe but certainly not of a Presidential candidate.

And now Edwards wife, Elizabeth, has made the statement that she may never eat another tangerine because they are not grown close to where she lives and the carbon the trucks would emit to haul them to her area would make too many greenhouse gasses and cause global warming.

The truth of the matter is that global warming is the bumper sticker. I know we could do a lot of things to make the environment better, the air clearer, the water cleaner and I¹m all for it. But real science refutes Al Gore's political fantasy and global warming is a farce.

Now let's get down to what the Edwards said. John Edwards statement is so asinine, so juvenile and so downright atrociously false that it shouldn't have to be given a second thought by anybody with a thimble full of gray matter.

But combined with Mrs. Edwards statement about the tangerines it should give us a pretty good idea how some of the elitist left wing of the Democrat party feels about defense and commerce.

To them there is no enemy, the war on terror only exists in the White House and we don¹t need to worry about the millions of depraved scumbags who want to murder us in our beds.

I guess their understanding of commerce is nil because commerce is the act of getting products to market wherever that market exists. If the tangerines are grown in California and there is a demand for them in North Carolina they have to be moved and they danged sure ain't going to get there by telepathy.

Tractor trailer rigs are a fact of life in this country and if you took them all off the road, grocery shelves would be empty, gas tanks would be dry and there would be more people out of work than during the Great Depression.

Commerce is what keeps this country going and the trucks are what help drive commerce and they will continue to do so whether Elizabeth Edwards ever eats another tangerine or not.

It's maddening to have some politician get up and make a campaign speech giving us dire warnings about global warming, walk out and get in a limousine, drive up to a private jet and fly away, leaving behind more carbon than a whole bunch of eighteen wheelers.

I have an idea about how to cut down on greenhouse gasses, Mrs. Edwards. Just have your husband get out of the campaign and stay home. Home because he sure ain't going to be the next President.

Think I'll go buy some tangerines.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America
Charlie Daniels

[thedrifter]

Charlie Daniels writes 'Iraq Blues' while on tour in war zone

ROBIN TOEPP
Tribune Correspondent

Legendary country-rocker Charlie Daniels isn't sure the general public will get the song "Iraq Blues," especially as divided as the American public has become over keeping a military presence in Iraq, but he recorded it anyway for his latest CD, "Live from Iraq."

Daniels, a Southern-born country boy from North Carolina who is known as much for his sense of American pride and outspoken political views as he is for his gift for storytelling and musicianship, performs Tuesday at the St. Joseph County 4-H Fair.

If fans are lucky, he'll treat them to the unfinished "Iraq Blues" while jammin' on some favorites, such as "Long Haired Country Boy," "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" or "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," from his career, which spans more than 40 years and several genres, including country, rock, blues, gospel and bluegrass.


"It's really kind of an inside song," Daniels says of "Iraq Blues" by telephone while on tour. "It wouldn't mean a whole lot to somebody besides someone who had been over there."

The brief slide blues describes a soldier's plans for when he gets home. Daniels says he wrote the first verse while visiting American troops in Iraq in 2005; the second verse came to him during his visit in 2006.

"When I get back from Iraq, I just can't wait to get back home again," he sings on the song. "I ain't never buyin' a copy of the New York Times, and I ain't never watching CNN/When I get back from Iraq, I'm goin' to go storming through my front door ... I'm gonna grab hold o' my baby and love her like she ain't never been loved before."

"They really like that one," Daniels says with a chuckle.

The band made its second trip to visit troops in Iraq in April of 2006, landing in Baghdad, then touring several military bases.

"You go in, you get over the protected area," he says, "and you kind of corkscrew down, and it's obvious you are in a war zone."

Once on the ground, Daniels says, he and the band played everywhere they could and tried to meet as many soldiers as possible, in and out of Baghdad. At one Marine base, Daniels and the band flew to another base to visit briefly with Marines who wouldn't be able to attend the base show.

"We got there and somebody brought out a guitar, and we sat down and did a little impromptu concert for them," he says. "Those kinds of things would happen. You'd go somewhere and you couldn't take the whole band, and it was like, 'Let's do what we can while we're here.' "

Daniels, who is known for his so-called "soap box" viewpoints, didn't disappoint during the interview, either, letting his train of thought roll through his point-blank political views.

"I think there is a lot of apathy. I think it's a lack of knowledge of what the military is all about. We are so inundated with talking heads on television," he says. "It's gotten to the point now where it is just absolutely ridiculous. People are doing everything besides calling each other S-O-B's, and I think some of them are probably doing some of that. ... I don't think they understand that without the military there would be no America. I get hung up on this."

He continues and refers to liberal college professors who corrupt young minds and politicians whose stances leave Daniels shaking his head.

"John Edwards made the statement the other day that the (war on terror) was a bumper sticker, a slogan," he says. "I've been to Iraq twice. I've been to Afghanistan. Don't tell those guys over there that go out" -- Daniels pauses for breath -- "I had a two-star general tell me in Iraq, 'We fight al-Qaeda here every day. If we don't stop them here, we're gonna stop them at home.' This is the first war we've had that would follow us home. I honestly, honestly believe that."

Daniels recorded a CD and DVD while in Iraq in 2006 that will either inspire or frustrate those who hear or see them.

"We'd gone (to Iraq) the one time and we didn't record," he says. "We just thought it's a unique experience. It's not everybody and it's not every day that you get to get on a plane and fly into the belly of the beast of Baghdad and that you get to go out to the operating bases where the guys are out there getting it done, where everybody's carrying guns."

In addition to "Iraq Blues," several Daniels standards appear on the CD, many of them songs from his early years in the 1970s, such as the 10-minute "Saddle Tramp," a song from 1976 that on the CD splits its two parts into verses up front followed by a Southern rock, heavy-on-the-guitar instrumental in the spirit of the Allman Brothers Band or The Grateful Dead.

The CD also includes several of his story songs, and with his gift for story telling and his regular "Soap Box" rhetoric featured on his Web site, it doesn't seem strange that Daniels also would write books. He's published two and recently edited and wrote the introduction for "Growing Up Country."

The new book features short stories and anecdotes, mainly from other country musicians, including Ralph Emery, Toby Keith, Dolly Parton and Aaron Tippin, but it also includes pieces from such people as former President Jimmy Carter, NASCAR's Darrell Waltrip and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

By the second page of the introduction, Daniels comes to the point: "Growing up country is more than just having the good luck to be born in a particular geographic location, or coming of age in a rural setting or making your living behind a plow. It's an attitude that's been woven into the fabric of my life, affecting every thought and every action; never forget your roots, your values, your family, old friends, and the people who raised and nurtured you."

"I love writing," he says. "It's something I didn't know I could do until several years ago. I enjoy doing it, but it is time consuming. At least it is for me."

Whatever the project, he gives it his all, but this 70-something shows no signs of slowing down.

"That's the way I like it," Daniels says. "I will have to slow one of these days. I don't plan on it. I don't see that happenin' right now. I still get excited about going out on the road, doing the things that I do. I mean I love what I do, so I think it's got a lot to do with stayin' involved and being blessed with the health to do it."

Ellie